March 31 2008 (Monday)

• Fasting for two days protects healthy cells against chemotherapy
  Chemotherapy
  Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....
  
  . This may allow higher doses of radiation and improved recovery times for patients. (Physorg)
• Phase-change memory
  Phase-change memory
  Phase-change memory is a type of non-volatile computer memory. PRAMs exploit the unique behavior of chalcogenide glass. Heat produced by the passage of an electric current switches this material between two states, crystalline and amorphous...
  
  : Numonyx
  Numonyx
  Numonyx is a semiconductor company making flash memories, which was founded on March 31, 2008 by Intel Corporation, STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners. It was acquired by Micron Technology on February 9, 2010....
  
   is shipping samples of phase change memory (PCM) with commercialization later this year. PCM provides the best attributes memory in fast write/read times, increased longevity and potentially use much less power. (CNet)

March 30 2008 (Saturday)

• Office Open XML: Voting is over for the International Organization for Standardization
  International Organization for Standardization
  The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
  
   on whether Office Open XML (OOXML) a Microsoft standard will be given ISO approval, which would help in marketing software to businesses and governments. The main competitor is OpenDocument (ODF) by Sun Microsystems
  Sun Microsystems
  Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
  
  . (IHT)

March 27 2008 (Thursday)

• Phonautograph
  Phonautograph
  The phonautograph is the earliest known device for recording sound. Previously, tracings had been obtained of the sound-producing vibratory motions of tuning forks and other objects by physical contact with them, but not of actual sound waves as they propagated through air or other media. Invented...
  
  : A 1860 recording of Au Clair de la Lune on a phonautograph has become the earliest known audio recording in history after scientists used computers to recreate the sound. Predating Edison's first recording by nearly three decades. (NYTimes)
• An MIT researcher has improved multicrystalline silicon solar cell efficiency
  Solar cell efficiency
  The efficiency of a solar cell may be broken down into reflectance efficiency, thermodynamic efficiency, charge carrier separation efficiency and conductive efficiency...
  
   by 27 percent with no price increase, making them equivalent to single-crystal cells. (TechReview)
• TorrentSpy
  TorrentSpy
  TorrentSpy was a popular BitTorrent indexing website. It provided .torrent files, which enabled users to exchange data between one another.It also provided a forum to comment on them and integrated the user-driven content site ShoutWire into the front page...
  
   shuts down in the midst of legal battles launched by the MPAA for copyright infringement. (CNet)

March 26 2008 (Wednesday)

• A 160 square miles (414.4 km²) portion of the Wilkins Ice Shelf is nearly broken off. Scientists believe it is a result of rapid warming in the Antarctic over the last 50 years. (CNet)
• Using a microRNA treatment that has been used successfully in primates, scientist hope to treat a variety of diseases. The first focus is on miR-122
  MiR-122
  miR-122 is a miRNA that is conserved between vertebrate species. miR-122 is not present in invertebrates, and no close paralogs of miR-122 have been detected. miR-122 expression is specific to the liver, where it has been implicated as a regulator of fatty-acid metabolism in mouse studies. Reduced...
  
   which is key for hepatitis C
  Hepatitis C
  Hepatitis C is an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus . The infection is often asymptomatic, but chronic infection can lead to scarring of the liver and ultimately to cirrhosis, which is generally apparent after many years...
  
   replication. (NewScientist)

March 24 2008 (Monday)

• XM/Sirius merger: The United States Department of Justice
  United States Department of Justice
  The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
  
   approves the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio
  Sirius Satellite Radio
  Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
  
   and XM Satellite Radio
  XM Satellite Radio
  XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
  
  . (Wall Street Journal)

March 21 2008 (Friday)

• United States 2008 wireless spectrum auction
  United States 2008 wireless spectrum auction
  The United States 700 MHz FCC wireless spectrum auction, officially known as Auction 73, was started by the Federal Communications Commission on January 24, 2008 for the rights to operate the 700 MHz frequency band in the United States...
  
  : Verizon Wireless
  Verizon Wireless
  Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....
  
   and AT&T
  AT&T
  AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
  
   won most of the wireless licenses in the FCC
  Federal Communications Commission
  The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
  
   spectrum auction
  Spectrum auction
  A spectrum auction is a process whereby a government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit signals over specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and to assign scarce spectrum resources. Depending on the specific auction format used, a spectrum auction can last from a single...
  
   which totaled , outbidding Google
  Google
  Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
  
  . The 700 MHz spectrum block will become available when television broadcasts transition to digital
  Digital television
  Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
  
  . (Inquirer)
• The U.S. International Trade Commission is investigating the patent infringement claim by Columbia University
  Columbia University
  Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
  
   Professor Emeritus Gertrude Neumark Rothschild on short-wavelength light-emitting diodes. This effects 30 companies including Sony
  Sony
  , commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
  
   and their blu-ray disc players. (Reuters)
• Scientists believe Saturn
  Saturn
  Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
  
  's moon Titan
  Titan (moon)
  Titan , or Saturn VI, is the largest moon of Saturn, the only natural satellite known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found....
  
   contains a vast underground ocean with ammonia
  Ammonia
  Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . It is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent odour. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or...
  
  , based on observations that surface features have moved 19 miles (30.6 km) over several years. If confirmed it would be the fourth moon suspected to have an internal ocean of water. (SciAm)
• GRB 080319B
  GRB 080319B
  GRB 080319B was a remarkable gamma-ray burst detected by the Swift satellite at 06:12 UTC on March 19, 2008. The burst set a new record for the farthest object that could be seen with the naked eye; it had a peak apparent magnitude of 5.8 and remained visible to human eyes for approximately 30...
  
  : A gamma ray burst
  Gamma ray burst
  Gamma-ray bursts are flashes of gamma rays associated with extremely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most luminous electromagnetic events known to occur in the universe. Bursts can last from ten milliseconds to several minutes, although a typical...
  
    light years
  Light-year
  A light-year, also light year or lightyear is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres...
  
   away sets a record for the most distant object that could be seen with the naked eye, previously the record was held by an object light years away. The explosion from a star which was 40-times larger than the sun reached Earth early Wednesday morning. (AP)

March 20 2008 (Thursday)

• Automotive X Prize
  Automotive X Prize
  The Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE was a set of competitions, programs and events, from the X Prize Foundation to "inspire a new generation of super-efficient vehicles that help break America's addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change." Progressive Insurance was the title...
  
  : The X PRIZE Foundation
  X Prize Foundation
  The X PRIZE Foundation is a non-profit organization that designs and manages public competitions intended to encourage technological development that could benefit mankind....
  
   launched a prize for teams to build a marketable vehicle that will achieve 100 MPG (2.35 liter/100 kilometer). (PopMech)
• Researchers at MIT and Boston College
  Boston College
  Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
  
   have made thermoelectric materials using a simple and inexpensive technique while increasing efficiency by 40 percent. This could be used for solar panels and car exhaust
  Exhaust system
  An exhaust system is usually tubing used to guide reaction exhaust gases away from a controlled combustion inside an engine or stove. The entire system conveys burnt gases from the engine and includes one or more exhaust pipes...
  
  s to turn waste heat into power. (TechReview)
• Stanford University School of Medicine
  Stanford University School of Medicine
  Stanford University School of Medicine is a leading medical school located at Stanford University Medical Center in Stanford, California. Originally based in San Francisco, California as Cooper Medical College, it is the oldest continuously running medical school in the western United States...
  
   researchers have found two new proteins within the telomerase
  Telomerase
  Telomerase is an enzyme that adds DNA sequence repeats to the 3' end of DNA strands in the telomere regions, which are found at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. This region of repeated nucleotide called telomeres contains non-coding DNA material and prevents constant loss of important DNA from...
  
   complex, making it the most significant step in understanding telomerase composition since 1999. This opens the door for creating new cancer treatments. (EurekAlert)
• Scientists at the Washington University School of Medicine
  Washington University School of Medicine
  Washington University School of Medicine , located in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the graduate schools of Washington University in St. Louis. One of the top medical schools in the United States, it is currently ranked 4th for research according to U.S. News and World Report and has been listed...
  
   have corrected a genetic disorder
  Genetic disorder
  A genetic disorder is an illness caused by abnormalities in genes or chromosomes, especially a condition that is present from before birth. Most genetic disorders are quite rare and affect one person in every several thousands or millions....
  
   in a zebrafish embryo. The technique has the potential to prevent one-fifth of genetic birth defects in humans. (EurekAlert)

March 19 2008 (Wednesday)

• For the first time an organic compound methane
  Methane
  Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, the principal component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel...
  
   along with water has been discovered on a planet outside our Solar System
  Solar System
  The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
  
   63 light-years away. However, scientists have concluded the planet cannot support life because it is too hot. (BBC)

March 18 2008 (Tuesday)

• Dextre the International Space Station
  International Space Station
  The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
  
   robot is fully assembled. It will perform service and construction tasks and can be controlled from the ground, freeing astronaut time for other tasks. (BBC)
• Acclaimed science fiction
  Science fiction
  Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
  
   writer Arthur C. Clarke
  Arthur C. Clarke
  Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
  
   dies at the age of 90 in Colombo
  Colombo
  Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
  
  , Sri Lanka
  Sri Lanka
  Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
  
  . (AP)

March 17 2008 (Monday)

• IBM
  IBM
  International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
  
   scientists have created the smallest and most robust nanophotonic
  Nanophotonics
  Nanophotonics or Nano-optics is the study of the behavior of light on the nanometer scale. It is considered as a branch of optical engineering which deals with optics, or the interaction of light with particles or substances, at deeply subwavelength length scales...
  
   switch that will enable light to communicate large amounts of data between processors
  Central processing unit
  The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
  
  ; while using 10 times less power and generating less heat. (Nanowerk)
• German and Canadian scientists have created a super-compressed material made from adding hydrogen
  Hydrogen
  Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
  
   to a compound with silicon
  Silicon
  Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
  
  . It is hoped it will act as a superconductor at room temperatures. (EETimes)
• The Molecular Libraries Initiative (MLI) has found a new treatment for schistosomiasis
  Schistosomiasis
  Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by several species of trematodes , a parasitic worm of the genus Schistosoma. Snails often act as an intermediary agent for the infectious diseases until a new human host is found...
  
   (flatworm
  Flatworm
  The flatworms, known in scientific literature as Platyhelminthes or Plathelminthes are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegmented, soft-bodied invertebrate animals...
  
  s laying eggs in the liver, gut or bladder) which kills 280,000 a year, mostly in Africa. The MLI is a new system which screens many chemicals for their effectiveness on neglected diseases. (NewScientist)

March 14 2008 (Friday)

• Cassini–Huygens Cosmic Dust Analyzer malfunctioned as it flew through a geyser
  Geyser
  A geyser is a spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by a vapour phase . The word geyser comes from Geysir, the name of an erupting spring at Haukadalur, Iceland; that name, in turn, comes from the Icelandic verb geysa, "to gush", the verb...
  
   from Saturn
  Saturn
  Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
  
  's moon Enceladus
  Enceladus (moon)
  Enceladus is the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn. It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. Until the two Voyager spacecraft passed near it in the early 1980s very little was known about this small moon besides the identification of water ice on its surface...
  
  . Scientists are trying to assess if there is liquid water under the surface which could support life. (Reuters)

March 13 2008 (Thursday)

• A Japanese satellite launching in October will be one of first applications of MRAM, which permits fast write times, reliable low energy storage and unlimited rewrites. (SCIAM)

March 12 2008 (Wednesday)

• University of Washington
  University of Washington
  University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
  
   scientists find 25 genes regulating lifespan that are conserved between primitive yeast
  Yeast
  Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...
  
  , caenorhabditis elegans
  Caenorhabditis elegans
  Caenorhabditis elegans is a free-living, transparent nematode , about 1 mm in length, which lives in temperate soil environments. Research into the molecular and developmental biology of C. elegans was begun in 1974 by Sydney Brenner and it has since been used extensively as a model...
  
   15 of which have similar human equivalents. This lends key evidence that ageing is genetically controlled, contrary to earlier theories. (Physorg)
• A neckband is demonstrated which converts nerve signals to the vocal cords to words without the person needing to speak. It has been previously used to let people control wheelchairs using their thoughts. (NewScientist)
• NIST
  National Institute of Standards and Technology
  The National Institute of Standards and Technology , known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards , is a measurement standards laboratory, otherwise known as a National Metrological Institute , which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce...
  
   researchers have found that brittle materials like silica are far more bendable and durable at nanoscales. (Nanowerk)
• Fraunhofer Society
  Fraunhofer Society
  The Fraunhofer Society is a German research organization with 60 institutes spread throughout Germany, each focusing on different fields of applied science . It employs around 18,000, mainly scientists and engineers, with an annual research budget of about €1.65 billion...
  
   researchers in Duisburg
  Duisburg
  - History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...
  
  , Germany, have created a wireless eye implant to enable the blind to see which receives the optical signal through radio waves
  Radio waves
  Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum longer than infrared light. Radio waves have frequencies from 300 GHz to as low as 3 kHz, and corresponding wavelengths from 1 millimeter to 100 kilometers. Like all other electromagnetic waves,...
  
  ; and its energy from electromagnetical fields. (EETimes)
• Professor/priest Michael Heller
  Michael Heller (professor/priest)
  Michał Kazimierz Heller, is a professor of philosophy at The Pontifical Academy of Theology in Cracow, Poland, and an adjunct member of the Vatican Observatory staff. He also serves as a lecturer in the philosophy of science and logic at the Theological Institute in Tarnów. A Roman Catholic priest...
  
   is awarded the Templeton Prize
  Templeton Prize
  The Templeton Prize is an annual award presented by the Templeton Foundation. Established in 1972, it is awarded to a living person who, in the estimation of the judges, "has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical...
  
   for his work on reconciling cutting-edge science with theology. (AP)

March 11 2008 (Tuesday)

• Movie studios have agreed to carry out a 3-year $700-million upgrade of 10,000 more theaters by Cinedigm (formerly Access Integrated Technologies, Inc) to accommodate digital 3-D movies and remove the need for expensive celluloid film. (Physorg)
• Intel Science Talent Search
  Intel Science Talent Search
  The Intel Science Talent Search , known for its first 57 years as the Westinghouse Science Talent Search is a research-based science competition in the United States for high school seniors. It has been referred to as "the nation's oldest and most prestigious" science competition. In his speech...
  
   awards Shivani Sud the top prize of a $100,000 college scholarship for her work on identifying colon cancer patients who are at a higher risk of recurrence. (AP)

March 10 2008 (Monday)

• Using computational protein design
  Protein design
  Protein design is the design of new protein molecules, either from scratch or by making calculated variations on a known structure. The use of rational design techniques for proteins is a major aspect of protein engineering....
  
   scientists have for the first time built from scratch enzyme
  Enzyme
  Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...
  
  s that breaks down a man-made chemical, which had no natural catalyst
  Catalysis
  Catalysis is the change in rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of a substance called a catalyst. Unlike other reagents that participate in the chemical reaction, a catalyst is not consumed by the reaction itself. A catalyst may participate in multiple chemical transformations....
  
  . (TechnologyReview)
• South Korea
  South Korea
  The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
  
   replaces its first astronaut Ko San
  Ko San
  Ko San is a South Korean researcher at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology.Ko was born in Busan. His father died when he was a boy, and his mother raised Ko and his sister. A graduate of Hanyoung Foreign Language High School, Ko went on to study mathematics at Seoul National University...
  
   with backup Yi So-yeon
  Yi So-yeon
  Yi So-yeon is a South Korean scientist and Ph.D. graduate of KAIST . On April 8, 2008, she became the first Korean and the second Asian woman to fly in space, after Chiaki Mukai.-Biography:Yi So-yeon was born to father Yi Gil-soo...
  
   after Ko was reprimanded for reading unauthorized cosmonaut
  Astronaut
  An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
  
   training material. (AP)

March 9 2008 (Sunday)

• An Associated Press
  Associated Press
  The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
  
   investigation shows trace amounts of many pharmaceuticals in American drinking water. (AP)
• Two additional years of data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
  Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
  The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe — also known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe , and Explorer 80 — is a spacecraft which measures differences in the temperature of the Big Bang's remnant radiant heat — the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation — across the full sky. Headed by Professor...
  
   has reduced the uncertainty on the Age of the Universe
  Age of the universe
  The age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang posited by the most widely accepted scientific model of cosmology. The best current estimate of the age of the universe is 13.75 ± 0.13 billion years within the Lambda-CDM concordance model...
  
   by millions of years. Now the estimate is years old with an error margin of years. (NYTimes)

March 7 2008 (Friday)

• University of New Mexico
  University of New Mexico
  The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
  
   have concluded the Grand Canyon
  Grand Canyon
  The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
  
   is 17 rather than years old based on uranium-lead isotope
  Isotope
  Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...
  
   testing in caves. (USAToday)
• Intel was awarded a patent
  Patent
  A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
  
   in December 2007 for a cosmic ray
  Cosmic ray
  Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
  
   detector in computer chips. With chip components becoming smaller "soft error
  Soft error
  In electronics and computing, a soft error is an error in a signal or datum which is wrong. Errors may be caused by a defect, usually understood either to be a mistake in design or construction, or a broken component. A soft error is also a signal or datum which is wrong, but is not assumed to...
  
  s" caused by cosmic rays may significantly impact electronic reliability. (NewScientist)

March 6 2008 (Thursday)

• Albert Einstein College of Medicine
  Albert Einstein College of Medicine
  Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a graduate school of Yeshiva University. It is a not-for-profit, private, nonsectarian medical school located on the Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus in the Morris Park neighborhood of the borough of the Bronx of New York City...
  
   researchers have inserted two gene
  Gene
  A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
  
  s into immune cells making them destroy cells infected with HIV
  HIV
  Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
  
  . The genes were taken from elite controllers
  Long-term nonprogressors
  Long-term nonprogressors , less commonly called elite controllers, are rare individuals who are infected with HIV, but control the infection without antiretroviral therapy . Many of these patients have been HIV positive for 30 years without progressing to AIDS...
  
  . (EurekAlert)
• Astronomers at the Large Binocular Telescope
  Large Binocular Telescope
  Large Binocular Telescope is an optical telescope for astronomy located on Mount Graham in the Pinaleno Mountains of southeastern Arizona, and is a part of the Mount Graham International Observatory...
  
   release the first images captured using both mirrors. It is now the world's most powerful optical telescope
  Optical telescope
  An optical telescope is a telescope which is used to gather and focus light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum for directly viewing a magnified image for making a photograph, or collecting data through electronic image sensors....
  
   and has 10 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope
  Hubble Space Telescope
  The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
  
  . (BBC)
• The iPhone
  IPhone
  The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
  
   releases a software development kit
  Software development kit
  A software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
  
   to enable third party programmers to create new programs for the iPhone. Key new features announced include Exchange ActiveSync
  ActiveSync
  ActiveSync is a mobile data synchronization technology and protocol developed by Microsoft, originally released in 1996. There are two implementations of the technology: one which synchronizes data and information with handheld devices with a specific desktop computer , and another technology,...
  
   which will permit the iPhone to compete with BlackBerry
  BlackBerry
  BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
  
   for business customers. (PCMag)
• The Wikileaks lawsuit is dropped by the Julius Baer Group
  Julius Baer Group
  Julius Bär Group is a Swiss banking firm which is the parent company of Bank Julius Bär, a traditional private bank based in Zurich, Switzerland. The firm dates itself back to the year 1890, when an exchange office was founded by Ludwig Hirschhorn und Theodor Grob. Joseph Michael Uhl and Julius...
  
  . (Reuters)

March 5 2008 (Wednesday)

• A new survey shows 58 percent of Americans consider their cell phone
  Mobile phone
  A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
  
   to be more important than the Internet
  Internet
  The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
  
   and television. Landline
  Landline
  A landline was originally an overland telegraph wire, as opposed to an undersea cable. Currently, landline refers to a telephone line which travels through a solid medium, either metal wire or optical fibre, as distinguished from a mobile cellular line, where transmission is via radio waves...
  
   telephone came in fourth, just above e-mail
  E-mail
  Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
  
  . (AP)

March 4 2008 (Tuesday)

• Carnegie Mellon University
  Carnegie Mellon University
  Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
  
   researchers develop a new haptic technology using a magnetic levitation
  Magnetic levitation
  Magnetic levitation, maglev, or magnetic suspension is a method by which an object is suspended with no support other than magnetic fields...
  
   joystick providing six degrees of freedom
  Six degrees of freedom
  Six degrees of freedom refers to motion of a rigid body in three-dimensional space, namely the ability to move forward/backward, up/down, left/right combined with rotation about three perpendicular axes...
  
   and accurate sensation of friction and hard surfaces. (NewScientist)
• Northwestern University
  Northwestern University
  Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
  
   discover an embryonic stem cell
  Embryonic stem cell
  Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst, an early-stage embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4–5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50–150 cells...
  
   protein (Lefty) can slow the growth of breast cancer
  Breast cancer
  Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
  
   and malignant melanoma
  Melanoma
  Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes. Melanocytes are cells that produce the dark pigment, melanin, which is responsible for the color of skin. They predominantly occur in skin, but are also found in other parts of the body, including the bowel and the eye...
  
  . (NewScientist)
• Internet Explorer 8
  Internet Explorer 8
  Windows Internet Explorer 8 is a web browser developed by Microsoft in the Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are available...
  
   (IE8) default setting will now render according to open web standards used by other browsers. This is a change in policy from the previously stated position that IE8 would default to Internet Explorer 7
  Internet Explorer 7
  Windows Internet Explorer 7 is a web browser released by Microsoft in October 2006. Internet Explorer 7 is part of a long line of versions of Internet Explorer and was the first major update to the browser in more than 5 years...
  
   rendering. (TheRegister)

March 3 2008 (Monday)

• Scientist uncover Teilhardina magnoliana
  Teilhardina magnoliana
  Teilhardina magnoliana is the earliest known North American primate known from Mississippi. It crossed the land bridge from Siberia, possibly more than 55.8 million years ago, although the age of the fossil is a matter of disagreement. The animal weighed approximately one ounce. -External links:* ....
  
  , the oldest known mammal
  Mammal
  Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
  
   fossil
  Fossil
  Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
  
   in North America ( years old). (Reuters)
• Intel announces the new Atom
  Intel Atom
  Intel Atom is the brand name for a line of ultra-low-voltage x86 and x86-64 CPUs from Intel, designed in 45 nm CMOS and used mainly in netbooks, nettops, embedded application ranging from health care to advanced robotics and Mobile Internet devices...
  
   brand for targeting very energy efficient and portable x86 microprocessor
  Microprocessor
  A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
  
  s for Internet centric devices.(CRN)
• The Virginia Supreme Court in a 4–3 decision upholds the conviction of spammer Jeremy Jaynes
  Jeremy Jaynes
  Jeremy Jaynes was a prolific e-mail spammer, broadcasting junk e-mail from his home in North Carolina, United States. He became the first person in the world to be convicted of "felony spam," i.e., convicted of a felony for sending spam without allegation of any accompanying illegal conduct such...
  
  ; concluding state anti-spam laws do not violate the First Amendment
  First Amendment to the United States Constitution
  The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
  
  by being too broadly defined. (CRN)